From left, Carmen C. Pangelinan, Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council secretary; Marian DLG Tudela, council chairwoman; Barbara Alberti, park superintendent; and Antonia M. Tudela, council vice chairwoman.
LED candles lit the Marianas Memorial courtesy of American Memorial Park
THE 17th Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, in cooperation with American Memorial Park on Saipan, is ready for the In Memoriam commemorative ceremony in October in remembrance of nearly a thousand Chamorros and Carolinian civilians who lost their lives during the fierce Battle of Saipan nearly 80 years ago in 1944.
The unveiling of the historic Marianas Memorial courtyard was held on June 13, 2004 and organized by then-Gov. Juan N. Babauta.
He, together with then-Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela, was joined by Bishop Thomas A. Camacho and Father Isaac Ayuyu for the Mass of remembrance, after which Babauta attended the ceremony at Marianas Memorial along with then-Youth Congress Speaker Alvin “Champ” Fejeran, who recited the 933 names etched in the granite tombstone.
Veterans, government officials, families, relatives, friends and other members of the community joined the commemorative fellowship and remembrance at American Memorial Park early Sunday morning 20 years ago in 2004, to witness the unveiling of the first granite edifice honoring the civilian Chamorro and Carolinian lives lost in the Battle of Saipan during WWII in 1944.
Ten years after the unveiling in 2004, the 12th Saipan Municipal Council held its first In Memoriam ceremony in October 2014, and in the following years except in 2018 due to Super Typhoon Yutu.
The In Memoriam ceremony was also postponed throughout the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021. In October 2022, a similar event was hosted by American Memorial Park.
This year will see the return of the community led by the municipality council leadership as host of In Memoriam in early October.
